New York’s former top cop takes on federal sentences

Former New York police commissioner Bernie Kerik appeared on the “Today” Show Friday where he criticzed federal mandatory minimum sentences. On “Meet the Pres” Sunday, BBC’s Katty Kay criticized Kerik for not knowing about federal mandatory minimum sentences:

But what stunned me about that interview is that he didn’t know this. That here is somebody who in charge in law enforcement, New York City`s top cop, and he didn’t know what he was going to find when he got there.

As Kerik mentioned, when he worked with the feds, it was on high-profile cases. In such a capacity, he wouldn’t see the low level offenders who were dragged before prosecutors and sentenced to serve time, not only for the drugs which they handled, but also for the quantities trafficked by kingpins.

The kingpins know how to game the system. The newbies do not. Clarence Aaron is a sad example, a nonviolent drug offender sentenced to life without parole on a first-time crack cocaine conviction. It’s time to get rid of these long sentences. And time for President Obama to commute the life-until-death sentence of Clarence Aaron.

You can read my Tuesday column on Kerik and federal mandatory minimums here.